Boy, 5, is ‘forgotten’ at pool
A west Auckland 5-year-old was stranded for more than an hour after school holiday programme staff left him at a swimming pool.
On Friday, Massey woman Stephanie Pita received a phone call all parents dread: ‘‘We can’t find your son.’’
Shane Pita had been taken on a day trip to Parakai Springs in northwest Auckland through Te Wha¯nau o Waipareira Trust’s holiday programme.
But when Pita’s motherin-law went to collect him from Ranui Primary School that afternoon, 38km from the pools, he was missing.
Pita said that when it was time to leave, Shane and the others went to get changed.
He told Pita he was one of the first to finish getting dressed, so he went to play on a nearby bouncy castle in the meantime.
He was still on the bouncy castle when he saw the bus leave without him.
Shane tried to chase the bus, but the driver and staff on board couldn’t see him.
After more than an hour waiting at Parakai Springs, Shane was picked up by a holiday programme staff member, Pita said.
He was reunited with his grandmother about an hour and a half later.
‘‘He’s terrified – it’s stuck in his head.’’
She questioned why a head count was not carried out either at the pool before they left, on the bus, or when they arrived back at the school.
Though the trust had been in touch to apologise, it hadn’t softened the blow, Pita said.
‘‘It really makes my blood boil that they had no idea he was missing at all.’’
Pita estimated about 100 children were taken to the pool.
Parents had to register their children, so staff would have been well aware how many children were in attendance, she said.